From the open publishing newswire: In a town where animal cruelty is the claim to fame, a couple of students stand up with (gasp)sidewalk chalk! The College Rodeo is this weekend and, in a town where rodeos are the biggest thing happening, its difficult but more necessary than ever for a couple people to stand up for the animals.

Two students went out in the middle of the night (Sunday April 20th) to simply lay the truth out... on the sidewalk... with chalk. These students were once members of the Animal Rights Club but had recently resigned due to disagreements with the president over MULTIPLE issues. These students covered the sidewalks on campus with text including "Animal Cruelty is not Entertainment", "The Rodeo is not a Sport", "Don't Support Animal Cruelty" in addition to others.

The following day both students received phone calls from the police, saying that they had been informed that these students were involved in "grafitti" on campus and that they'd heard that these students have been involved in animal rights protests before. The students told the police that they were, in fact, responsible for the display and that this was MUCH less harmful that what is done to animals in the rodeo.
The following day the attached article came out in the campus paper.... more animal rights "grafitti" showed up on the sidewalks early this morning in addition to some phrases about FREEDOM OF SPEECH
The police are looking for these unruly anarchists.

From the open publishing newswire: KOIN, KGW, and KPTV have announced that only 300 hundred protesters (while really it was more like 1,300 protesters) "boycotted school." They mentioned that there were accounts of people fighting the police. And that "juveniles" were arrested for being in the street when we were on the sidewalk.

Fuck the corporate media. You slimy bastards.

From the open publishing newswire: In Olympia this week, a Washington State House Committee approved a resolution asking Congress to roll back the FCC's recent deregulation of media ownership rules. At issue is a controversial FCC decision last December to allow media companies to control both a city's newspaper and TV/radio stations, in the 20 largest markets. The decision flies in the face of overwhelming opposition expressed by the thousands of people who testified against media consolidation at six public hearings, hundreds of thousands of comments submitted to the FCC, and an impressively bipartisan range of elected officials.

The FCC's final public hearing on the issue was held in Seattle on Nov 9. Despite having less than a week's notice of the hearing date, over 1100 people turned out to testify at the nine-hour marathon hearing.

This week, the Washington State House Committee on Technology, Energy and Communications unanimously endorsed a resolution urging Congress to enact the Media Ownership Act, a bill which would retroactively repeal the FCC's December ruling, and impose stronger public accountability requirements on future FCC decisions.

From the open publishing newswire: The International Anarchist Conspiracy (IAC) is a fictitious organization. The IAC does not exist in the real world. The IAC only exists in the virtual world known as the internet. The virtual world of the internet is not the real world. The internet is a part of the spectacle controlled by this system, the spectacle which keeps people detached from reality. If people are detached from reality, they cannot understand it well enough to know how to act in it. The function of the fictitious organization known as the IAC is to reveal the wide variety of control mechanisms keeping people shackled to the illusions spawned by those in power. The fictitious organization known as the IAC has attempted to accomplish this in many ways and for many reasons....

From the open publishing newswire: I just got back from Seattle, where I attended the 6th and final opportunity for the public to confront the FCC on plans to allow further consolidation of the corporate media. Knowing that there is a vibrant and independent culture of media activism in the NW, the commissioners in favor of the sweeping changes resorted to a sneaky ploy: They gave the public only a few days' notice prior to the hearing. They figured this would prevent us from being able to attend the hearings, and thus we would be as silenced from the debate as they would like us to be from the public airwaves. As you will see, the ploy did not work.

From the open publishing newswire: from DemocracyNow.org .. yet another step of Fascism.. media control
FCC Chair Kevin Martin Proposes Rules to Allow for Greater Media Consolidation

The FCC is proposing to do away with media ownership rules that bar companies from owning both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city. In 2003, Kevin Martin voted with the then-FCC chairman to lift the same media ownership rules but the effort was overturned by the landmark Prometheus v. FCC decision. The FCC was ordered to justify the changes and their impact on diversity and localism.

The Chair of the Federal Communications Commission is proposing to do away with media ownership rules that bar companies from owning both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city. If approved the new rules could take effect as early as this December.

From the open publishing newswire: LINK TO VIDEO : This past summer, 13 college students have been sponsored by the newly launched Northwest Institute and have been addressing the issues of the environment, Iraq Veterans, and Homelessness just to name a few ? plus they have been learning about the new opportunities presented for the media by technologies like YouTube, The Internet, and blogs.

The event on Wednesday evening highlights and credits those students who are learning and applying "Media Activism" Their website is http://www.nwisc.com

I was interested in all these same topics and took it upon myself to come down and film their presentation. And I am glad I did.

There were books randomly placed on the tables and I filmed as many of the titles as possible - they all were on "The Media" and looked pretty interesting.

From the open publishing newswire: The Portland Grassroots Media Camp (PGMC) is a weekend long event of
skills trainings and workshops designed to make media creation and
production more accessible to organizers, activists, and all community
members. Workshops will take place across Portland at such sites as
PCC Cascade Campus, the Musicians Union, St. Francis Church, KBOO,
Laughing Horse Books, Liberty Hall, and the Center for Intercultural
Organizing

The weekend will be an opportunity for community organizers,
activists, and members, especially from immigrant communities in and
around Portland, to learn new skills, get connected with local
alternative media resources, and network with other immigrant,
community, and media organizations. Workshops will two hours long
focusing on one specific skill through the use of hands on activities.
All skill levels are welcome. All workshops are FREE and open to the
general public

From the open publishing newswire: I was just a little too old to watch Mister Rogers, but I remember my little sister watching him. It's true, he insisted that each child was special. It's a statement that is a little hard to argue with on its face, but it was intended to help children build the self-esteem they need to socialize in a healthy manner. Once you accept yourself, you can accept others; if you can feel for yourself, you can feel for others.

The recent attacks on "today's youth," as exhibiting narcissism, are not motivated by concern for the individual, nor for the society. The attacks come from reactionaries featured on Fox "news," for a start -- hardly the friend of the working class. It is easy to dismiss this latest fad as another right-wing crank phenomenon, but I'm sure it has a more insidious purpose.

From the open publishing newswire: The Oregon Extra, a special Peace Edition, was inserted into over a thousand copies of The Oregonian today. The single page insert was created and distributed by the Surge Protection Brigade (aka the Seriously Pissed Off Grannies) as a May Day protest. The Extra spotlights subjects that mainstream media will not cover, such as the dangers and casualties of depleted uranium, the truth behind the lies told by military recruiters and how big media's failure to act as a watchdog has failed the American people.

From the open publishing newswire: Greg Palast, investigative reporter visited Portland Wednesday evening, April 24, 2007, promoting the addition of two chapters to his most recent book, "Armed Madhouse." The event was co sponsored by KBOO Radio, and was a benefit for the Portland Alliance Newspaper.

Palast was in town last year on his Armed Madhouse Tour, and this visit presented some of the same information. Though he did review much of the earlier material, the additional two chapters added much that was new, especially his investigation of the Federal Debacle in New Orleans leading up to and after Hurricane Katrina.

The event was extremely well attended, filling up the majority of the seats at the First Unitarian Church, probably about 300-350 people.

From the open publishing newswire: the Wall Street Journal's far-right editorial page and New York Times were recently in attack mode taking on two Latin American leaders deserving praise. First, the Journal. self-styled "Latin American expert" Mary Anastasia O'Grady's latest April 9 column titled "Sharp Left Turn in Ecuador" makes the case. O'Grady launches her attack with what she calls "the constitutional crisis that Ecuador finds itself in today... modern day plunder frenzy (pitting) President Raphael Correa, outspoken admirer of... Chavez, against members of Congress who wish to preserve the country's institutional balance of power. At stake is the future of democracy,... under a soft dictatorship allied with the Venezuelan strongman." Correa took office January 15 making impressive promises he's so far trying to keep. That arouses O'Grady's ire so she oxymoronically refers to "non-democratic Ecuador" while admitting, at the same time, Correa "was elected fair and square."

Early on, Correa campaigned like George Bush never did promising real change including using the country's oil revenue (Ecuador is the hemisphere's fifth largest producer) for critically needed social services Ecuadoreans never got before from right wing governments unwilling to provide them. He promised a "citizens' revolution" beginning by drafting a new Constitution in a Constituent Assembly with a national referendum on it scheduled for Sunday, April 15 following the same pattern his ally Hugo Chavez chose in 1999 following his first election as Venezuela's president in December, 1998. With popular support for it overwhelming, it's virtually certain to pass, again arousing O'Grady's ire calling this democratic process a "power grab" (sparking a) constitutional crisis." For the kleptocracy maybe, not for the long-exploited people.

Not about to let the Wall Street Journal one-up it, the New York Times assaulted Hugo Chavez in its April 10 Romero/Krauss article "High Stakes: Chavez Plays the Oil Card." [The Times championed the aborted 2 day coup toppling him briefly calling it a "resignation" and saying Venezuela was "no longer threatened by a would-be dictator."] Chavez made it clear to foreign investors the old way of doing business based on corporate exploitation of the country's resources at the expense of the Venezuelan people is over. The new rules are fair ones, the same kinds foreign oil and other investors agree to in deals with Global North countries but don't have to in relations with developing ones. The article continues with scare-talk saying Chavez's "confrontation could easily end up with everyone losing", meaning if Big Oil leaves, "Venezuela risks undermining the engine behind Mr. Chavez's socialist-inspired revolution by hampering its ability to transform the nation's oil into riches for years to come." Nonsense. If Big Oil leaves, which is very doubtful, it will be the loser and Venezuelan oil production will continue under new joint-venture partnerships.

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com

From the open publishing newswire: You gotta love the Sandy Post. It's actually becoming a family event to sit down and read the local rag each week. The kids and I are usually either left rolling on the floor in laughter or shaking our heads in bewilderment - at not only the events that occur in our little backward burg, but also frequently at the what passes for journalism.

This week's Post headline screams:
"New high school dress code targets gangs."

There's just one little problem though, as much as Chief Skelton may want there to be (and he frequently asserts there is), THERE ARE NO GANGS in Sandy. Sandy High School student body president Megan Murphy was quoted as saying MUCH later in the article (way back on page 10A): "We shouldn't have to worry about wearing gang material because there are no gangs at our school."